Environmental Farming Scheme Given Green Light

The Environment Secretary has today announced that the Payment by Results (PBR) project will be the first agri-environment scheme directly funded by the UK.

In future, all the funding for the Payment
by Results (PBR) pilot will come from Defra, with a £540,000 boost announced
today to pay farmers according to the environmental outcomes
they achieve over the next two years.

The project is paying participating farmers in two areas - Norfolk
and Suffolk in the East of England and Wensleydale
in Yorkshire - for work that is specifically tailored to the environmental needs
of their area. For example, in Norfolk and Suffolk farmers are
benefitting from planting nectar plots for bees and other pollinators,
while those in Wensleydale are focused on managing species-rich
meadows.

Today’s announcement follows the government’s public consultation
on future farming policy which set out plans to move towards a
system where farmers are paid according to the public goods they
provide. As we leave the EU, there will be further trialling work
to reach a model where profitable farm businesses and environmental
land management can co-exist and complement one another.

Secretary
of State for Defra, Michael Gove, said:
Under the CAP,
agri-environment schemes have been overly bureaucratic and inflexible.
This has impeded innovation for farmers who are passionate about
the environment and want to see real change.

The Payment by Results pilot marks a shift in how we think about
rewarding farmers for their work. This approach signals how we
see the future of farm payments, where farmers deliver public goods
for the environment which we all enjoy.

I am delighted to extend this scheme and look forward to seeing
further evidence of its success as we plan for our future outside
the EU.

The PBR project had been due to conclude at the end of this year,
but Defra’s new funding will enable participating farmers to deliver
environmental benefits for an additional two years.

The trial is focused on providing training and guidance for farmers
so they are empowered to create their own management plan for their
land, and feel more knowledgeable about what they want to achieve,
and why. This flexibility has meant participants have become more
engaged in the wildlife they want to see on their land and think
more creatively about how to achieve these results.

In Wensleydale, the PBR pilot is delivered by Natural
England in partnership with the Yorkshire
Dales National Park Authority.
It has proved popular with participating sheep and cattle farmers
managing grassland in the area, who have been rewarded for producing
habitat suitable for breeding waders, or for managing species-rich
meadows.

Arable farmers in Norfolk and Suffolk have been paid for their
management of plots that provide winter food for farmland
birds during the “hungry gap” when natural sources of seed food have
been depleted. They have also planted and maintained flower-rich
foraging habitat for pollinators, protecting this hugely important
part of the ecosystem.

Chairman
of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Carl Lis, said:
I am delighted that the Government has funded an extension
and expansion of the Wensleydale payment by results pilot scheme.
The pilot scheme has been a hit with farmers because it has been
designed and delivered locally – and because it puts the farmer
back in control of how the land is managed, rather than having
to follow very detailed and rigid prescriptions.

With support from our farm team advisers, and the Natural England
Project Manager, the 19 farmers in the scheme have produced some
excellent environmental results in a short time. They have received
payments for making their pastures into good habitat for wading
birds, or for restoring and conserving species-rich hay meadows
– which are no doubt the jewel in the crown of the Yorkshire Dales
National Park’s farmed landscape. The better the environmental
results, the more they get paid.